http://www.fourmilab.ch/
Rather eclectic and interesting collection of stuff
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Babbage's Analytical Engine -- Simulator / Emulator
http://www.fourmilab.ch/babbage/contents.html
Proof that Babbage's design was indeed practical (independently of the 19th century ability of technology to construct it accurately enough)
ENIAC on a Chip
http://www.ese.upenn.edu/~jan/eniacproj.html
Done for ENIAC's 50th anniversary...
A group of students at the Department of Electrical Engineering have designed "ENIAC(TM)-on-a-Chip", under supervision of Professor J. Van der Spiegel,
Done for ENIAC's 50th anniversary...
A group of students at the Department of Electrical Engineering have designed "ENIAC(TM)-on-a-Chip", under supervision of Professor J. Van der Spiegel,
jsScheme - Chris Double (Firefox version) - 99 bottles
68000 68k fun
Some nice stuff...
Easy68K runs (sorta) under Wine ... even better in XP under VirtualBox under Ubuntu Jaunty.
Porting a FORTH to 68008 board -- from kforth found in pastebin ... haven't ID'd author correctly yet.... will try to track him down.
Derivative of JonesForth (which version?) whic his originally x86 and literately commented (this port isn't :( )
Collaborating with Ravi Chemudugunta on this. A bright, keen lad :)
No WORDS word alas...
b0rks the emulator on multiple RELOAD 's
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Look ma - no pills!
Well, I have wound the Prozac (equivalent) right down to nothing ... finished the process in late Feb / Early March.
I feel livelier much of the time... also angrier and sadder at times.
This is pretty much as expected, as SSRI's tend to level your mood ... not so low, but unfortunately not so high either.
And I think my short term memory is improved... can't give specific examples (I forgot ;-) ) but that is my general impression.
Now the thing is to make sure I look after myself in sensible ways:
More exercise (important as I tend to be in sedentary mode for work)
More sleep and less pushing through tiredness
More sunlight ... by regularising my hours (as per prev point) and getting outside for some nice UV/Vitamin D uptake.
Don't let me forget! :)
I feel livelier much of the time... also angrier and sadder at times.
This is pretty much as expected, as SSRI's tend to level your mood ... not so low, but unfortunately not so high either.
And I think my short term memory is improved... can't give specific examples (I forgot ;-) ) but that is my general impression.
Now the thing is to make sure I look after myself in sensible ways:
More exercise (important as I tend to be in sedentary mode for work)
More sleep and less pushing through tiredness
More sunlight ... by regularising my hours (as per prev point) and getting outside for some nice UV/Vitamin D uptake.
Don't let me forget! :)
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
SSRI reduction...
Lately I've been wondering whether my short-term memory has been compromised by using SSRI's (alias Prozac) for OCD/Depression (I've been on prescription for that for the last 8 years or so)... I read some stuff online which was pretty damning about the stuff... so I decided pretty much unilaterally to gradually reduce the dosage at 5% per week initially, and see what happens.
I've dropped from 3 caps a day (60mg) nearly down to 2 per day (40mg); so far I don't think I am having any huge adverse effects. I think if anything, I'm feeling more clear-headed and 'with-it'. Time will tell.
I may rethink the reduction strategy when I'm at 2 per day; perhaps adjust to 5% of that dose reduction per week.
I'm pretty much aware that I really need to keep regular hours of sleep etc. and get some exercise .... have been doing pretty well on the former front, but still need to come up to speed on the latter.
I have walked to work a few times lately, listening to MP3's on the way (makes it a lot less boring - cheers to David Allen for his excellent 'Getting Things Done - Fast' CD's :) ).
Need to make it a real habit.
Alternatives could be push-biking (cycling) and maybe roller-blading :)
Wish me luck and / or willpower :)
I've dropped from 3 caps a day (60mg) nearly down to 2 per day (40mg); so far I don't think I am having any huge adverse effects. I think if anything, I'm feeling more clear-headed and 'with-it'. Time will tell.
I may rethink the reduction strategy when I'm at 2 per day; perhaps adjust to 5% of that dose reduction per week.
I'm pretty much aware that I really need to keep regular hours of sleep etc. and get some exercise .... have been doing pretty well on the former front, but still need to come up to speed on the latter.
I have walked to work a few times lately, listening to MP3's on the way (makes it a lot less boring - cheers to David Allen for his excellent 'Getting Things Done - Fast' CD's :) ).
Need to make it a real habit.
Alternatives could be push-biking (cycling) and maybe roller-blading :)
Wish me luck and / or willpower :)
Biennial Update?
Dang, I have been busy....
I thought it was about time I updated ze blog...
I've been working with QuickCircuit Limited (http://www.quickcircuit.co.nz) in Albany, Auckland since about March 2005.... doing Linux on PXA255 platform (Intel XScale).
We're doing pretty well, I think... so far we have for our platform(s):
LCD display
Sound
IDE
Ethernet of several flavours
Serial ports
LED's (W00t!)
And now USB on the way.
Some hardware has been done in FPGA's and/or CPLD's using VHDL (and some 3rd-party Verilog).
Altogether, enjoying it... thought very tiring and stressful sometimes - usual for this kind of work though, really...
Great bunch of people to work with; my direct boss Mario is superb - no BS whatsoever, entirely reasonable, extremely smart and has become a good friend to boot :)
I thought it was about time I updated ze blog...
I've been working with QuickCircuit Limited (http://www.quickcircuit.co.nz) in Albany, Auckland since about March 2005.... doing Linux on PXA255 platform (Intel XScale).
We're doing pretty well, I think... so far we have for our platform(s):
LCD display
Sound
IDE
Ethernet of several flavours
Serial ports
LED's (W00t!)
And now USB on the way.
Some hardware has been done in FPGA's and/or CPLD's using VHDL (and some 3rd-party Verilog).
Altogether, enjoying it... thought very tiring and stressful sometimes - usual for this kind of work though, really...
Great bunch of people to work with; my direct boss Mario is superb - no BS whatsoever, entirely reasonable, extremely smart and has become a good friend to boot :)
Sunday, May 1, 2005
This Blog Needs Photos!
Hmmm... again I realize this blog needs a bit of visual livening-up...
My digital camera is pretty crap (whaddaya expect for ~$US100 a coupla years ago :) )... and I think I've probably fried the CCD (light-sensitive chip wot takes da pickies) due to sun exposure - it has no Iris or shutter :( ... I'd like to get a better one but can't really afford it just now - so whatever appears here will necessarily be somewhat ... er ... 'artistic' :)
I'll start soon with some (pre-existing) photos from my cousin's wedding, methinks.
Once I set things up here properly I'll likely start to do some Audio-Visual stuff and maybe some regular 'driving-around-Auckland' Podcasting ... fer all'a'youse Furriners out there :)
My digital camera is pretty crap (whaddaya expect for ~$US100 a coupla years ago :) )... and I think I've probably fried the CCD (light-sensitive chip wot takes da pickies) due to sun exposure - it has no Iris or shutter :( ... I'd like to get a better one but can't really afford it just now - so whatever appears here will necessarily be somewhat ... er ... 'artistic' :)
I'll start soon with some (pre-existing) photos from my cousin's wedding, methinks.
Once I set things up here properly I'll likely start to do some Audio-Visual stuff and maybe some regular 'driving-around-Auckland' Podcasting ... fer all'a'youse Furriners out there :)
Firewalls - Monowall, Smoothwall
I downloaded a couple of (CD ISO) images of free firewalls last night - Monowall and Smoothwall - after hearing about them from the In The Trenches (System Administrators' podcast) interview with Mike Sweeney, author of Internet Security with Linux (check this and add hyperlinks!).
I'd used vanilla Linux - Debian, RedHat or Mandrake - stripped to the essentials and using iptables as the firewall - but haven't delved into more 'modern' ways of doing things - I'd seen RedWall used at a previous job but not been directly involved. I'm hoping the GUI front-ends on these things will make things a little less tedious to configure.
I want to set up a DMZ with mail, web and possibly other servers - and probably speed up DNS and do some web proxying/caching... and tighten up things a bit - especially since there are Windows machines in here - I might isolate those off onto their own network segment (and if I'm really feeling paranoid, install VPN on all the machines here)...
...oh, and I almost forgot, I want to put up Wi-Fi access for the house (and possibly for guests) without opening a can of worms.
So when I get some spare time, I'll be installing one of the above-mentioned firewalls (maybe some others if they take my fancy) and some NIC's, in a spare PC or 2 here (sidenote: 'twould be nice to shrink it to an ARM-based board to save power costs eventually) and play with configuring and securing them.
Watch this space...
I'd used vanilla Linux - Debian, RedHat or Mandrake - stripped to the essentials and using iptables as the firewall - but haven't delved into more 'modern' ways of doing things - I'd seen RedWall used at a previous job but not been directly involved. I'm hoping the GUI front-ends on these things will make things a little less tedious to configure.
I want to set up a DMZ with mail, web and possibly other servers - and probably speed up DNS and do some web proxying/caching... and tighten up things a bit - especially since there are Windows machines in here - I might isolate those off onto their own network segment (and if I'm really feeling paranoid, install VPN on all the machines here)...
...oh, and I almost forgot, I want to put up Wi-Fi access for the house (and possibly for guests) without opening a can of worms.
So when I get some spare time, I'll be installing one of the above-mentioned firewalls (maybe some others if they take my fancy) and some NIC's, in a spare PC or 2 here (sidenote: 'twould be nice to shrink it to an ARM-based board to save power costs eventually) and play with configuring and securing them.
Watch this space...
Back Into the Walking...
Went for a decent walk again last night - after a break of about 2 weeks due to general wimpiness and lethargy... we've had a cold snap and I've been flat-out busy (excuses, excuses...)
Went out around 6pm (still twilight) and covered about 8km (9500 steps odd per pedometer)...
...stopped into the local Foodtown supermarket and picked up a vacuum-pack 'brick' of some nice coffee on the way back - Melitta (? -- I'll check) Hazelnut Dream... not half bad (a little reminiscent of an Irish Cream, but "it's a bit nutty!" .... no Austin, not *that* kind of nutty ... [ewww!!] )...
The first section of the walk is maybe a 1-in-30 uphill slope for the first kilometre (~half-mile) or so; I noticed I was breathing 'solidly' - but none of the slightly-panicky breathlesness of the past...
I pushed reasonably hard initially - gradually eased off in the latter stages. The downhill km or so near the end is a welcome relief...
Some pain in the calves and achilles region... this seems to be fading and/or I'm learning to push through it... hard to tell, since I've been a dyed-in-the-wool Couch Potato / Desk Nerd since word go... I still think Sadistic Bastard Phys Ed teachers are a good way to inoculate kids against exercise - an excess of the 'no pain, no gain' mantra in operation...
My feet felt swollen & tender in the soles - this is likely to diminish as I persist, my circulation improves and my weight drops (less load!)...
Listened to a couple of "On the Pod's" on my MP3 player as I went - very enjoyable to walk to - relaxed and chatty, but with a fair amount of info gleaned from the experience... thanks, Cam and Mick!
I'll get a GPS receiver before long, methinks - the cheapest reasonable one I know of is shaped like a mushroom (like those Furuno Radar installations on fishing trawlers)... that'll make an excellent fashion statement sitting on top of my beanie as I stroll, no? :) - and log the actual location of the walk on a map - and calculate some stats... watch this space.
Went out around 6pm (still twilight) and covered about 8km (9500 steps odd per pedometer)...
...stopped into the local Foodtown supermarket and picked up a vacuum-pack 'brick' of some nice coffee on the way back - Melitta (? -- I'll check) Hazelnut Dream... not half bad (a little reminiscent of an Irish Cream, but "it's a bit nutty!" .... no Austin, not *that* kind of nutty ... [ewww!!] )...
The first section of the walk is maybe a 1-in-30 uphill slope for the first kilometre (~half-mile) or so; I noticed I was breathing 'solidly' - but none of the slightly-panicky breathlesness of the past...
I pushed reasonably hard initially - gradually eased off in the latter stages. The downhill km or so near the end is a welcome relief...
Some pain in the calves and achilles region... this seems to be fading and/or I'm learning to push through it... hard to tell, since I've been a dyed-in-the-wool Couch Potato / Desk Nerd since word go... I still think Sadistic Bastard Phys Ed teachers are a good way to inoculate kids against exercise - an excess of the 'no pain, no gain' mantra in operation...
My feet felt swollen & tender in the soles - this is likely to diminish as I persist, my circulation improves and my weight drops (less load!)...
Listened to a couple of "On the Pod's" on my MP3 player as I went - very enjoyable to walk to - relaxed and chatty, but with a fair amount of info gleaned from the experience... thanks, Cam and Mick!
I'll get a GPS receiver before long, methinks - the cheapest reasonable one I know of is shaped like a mushroom (like those Furuno Radar installations on fishing trawlers)... that'll make an excellent fashion statement sitting on top of my beanie as I stroll, no? :) - and log the actual location of the walk on a map - and calculate some stats... watch this space.
Someone left a Comment -- Huzzah!!!
Kewl - someone left a comment on my blog - a milestone!!! Thanks for the encouragement, Rob!
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